How to water a newly planted avocado tree

Let’s say you just planted an avocado tree from a five-gallon container, the typical size available at nurseries. How should you water this tree?

First, immediately after planting you should water lavishly, making sure that all of the container soil is wet and also making sure that the surrounding native soil is also wet to a couple feet away from the tree and a couple feet deep. One way you can do this is by leaving a basin around the tree that you can fill with water over and over, as seen in the photo above. You’re likely going to need to apply about 10 gallons to do this, or even more if the soil is very dry.

Why water the container soil? Because that’s where the tree’s roots are. Why water the surrounding soil when the tree’s roots are only in the container soil? Because if the surrounding native soil is dry, it will literally suck water from the container soil, leaving the tree’s roots thirsty.

How often and how much

After planting day, be sure that you’re watering the container soil consistently but also watering the surrounding native soil occasionally. This might mean that you put automated irrigation on the container soil and then hand-water the surrounding native soil every couple weeks.

How often is “consistently”? And how much should you water each time? I’ll try to be as specific as possible (this is for a five-gallon tree).

For a tree planted in spring or early fall:

Week 1- water every other day, 2 gallons each time

Week 2- water every three days, 3 gallons each time

Weeks 3/4- water every four days, 3 gallons each time

For a tree planted in summer:

Week 1- water every day, 1 gallon each time

Week 2- water every other day, 2 gallons each time

Weeks 3/4- water every three days, 3 gallons each time

For a tree planted in late fall or winter:

Week 1- water every three days, 2 gallons each time

Week 2- water every four days, 2 gallons each time

Weeks 3/4- water every five days, 3 gallons each time

Remember that your baby avocado tree will use more or less water according to the weather conditions. If there’s an extreme heat wave soon after planting, you may have to water every day. Likewise, if there are storms every week during winter, you’ll not need to water at all. But there could also be warm, dry Santa Anas in winter, which could make your new avocado tree want water every few days despite the winter season.

In general, you’ll water frequently at first and then less often as time goes on. This is because the tree will eventually grow its roots into the surrounding native soil and have more stamina because of its larger root system.

So after the first couple months — no matter which season — your regular waterings should no longer only be over the container soil but also over the surrounding native soil. And the watering schedule should change to more closely approximate the schedule it can use for the rest of its life.

It doesn’t much matter what materials or products you use to water the tree, from that first watering through the entire first year. (Which watering method is best in the long run? Probably sprinklers, not drip. See why on page 19 of this avocado-growing handbook.) Watering by hand with a can or a hose is fine, watering by drip emitters can work fine as long as the emitters are close to the trunk and directly on top of the container soil, and a sprinkler works great too.

The reason I’d recommend it is because it’s both widely available and it’s a great product. It’s sold at Home Depot as well as many other stores, both online and physical. It costs around $3.

And why is it a great product? Similar to the Philmac sprinkler, DIG’s micro sprinkler can be the first and last watering device that you buy and install for the life of your avocado tree. This is because it comes with a 90-degree sprayer insert that works perfectly on a newly planted tree, as shown in the photo above, in addition to a spinner insert that will apply water in a wide diameter (up to 25 feet), so it can be used on big, mature trees too.

I use a sprayer on new trees, and then switch to a rotating sprinkler (spinner) once a tree’s canopy is more than about four feet in diameter, which tends to be after a year or two in the ground. The easiest way to do this is to use something like Philmac’s sprinkler or DIG’s micro sprinkler, which can be used in sprayer and sprinkler modes.

One modification I make is that I always insert a little shut-off valve on the tubing so that I can adjust the volume on the sprayer, and later on the sprinkler. (Note the shut-off valve on the Philmac sprinkler tubing in the photo above.)

Here is a video I made showing this sprinkler watering avocado trees in my yard:

16 Comments

A few of us here in the NE are growing Avocados from a pit in a glass of water. Two are about a foot tall with a few leaves. These were put in a pot of soil. Unfortunately one has a few brown leaves; one leaf if almost totally brown and curling.
I read in this article that the browning can be caused by Chorine in the water. I don’t know where the water here at the office, comes from. Should we use bottled water from now on to prevent anymore browning???
thanks for any info

I think it’s great that you guys are growing some avocados from seed. It’s possible that the browning of the leaves are due to chloride. Also possible is that there was a little spell where the tree didn’t get watered often enough. This will cause avocado leaves to brown too.

This is an easy mistake to make because avocados do not handle dry soil well and small containers dry out fast compared to big containers or trees in the ground. Most of my avocado seedlings in small containers have some browning on some of their older leaves.

It certainly can’t hurt to use water that you know is more pure, like bottled water. Nurseries that grow avocados sometimes run their water through a reverse osmosis system in order to give the baby trees really clean water.

Each time you do water, especially if you continue using the office water, it’s best to water so much that you see water flushing out of the bottom holes of the container. This will help to leach the soil and keep chloride levels down.

I grew an avocado tree from a pit. It’s a few years old and has been in the container all these years. It is about 6 ft tall and my husband has decided it’s time to put it in the ground. It’s early spring so we figured it’s the best time. Do we need to fertilize and if so with what? We are in Texas (south) and it gets really hot in the summer, so we’ll have keep it well watered then. Any suggestions to keep our tree healthy??

I think it’s safest and smartest to put a tree in the ground and watch it grow before doing any fertilizing. Fertilize as a need is shown — through leaf symptoms or exceptionally slow growth, for example.

My yard gets somewhat hot too, with an August high temperature average of 91. What I do with my trees is keep them well mulched, with a layer of wood chips at least a couple inches thick. This eventually serves as a form of fertilizer, but more importantly, it protects the soil and the shallow roots from the summer heat. This practice is probably your key to getting the tree through hot summers — along with watering appropriately, of course.

All that being said, I don’t know south Texas. So if you can talk to a neighbor with healthy avocado trees, take that advice over mine. And please let us know how things go.

I have a hass and a little Cado. They have been in the ground about 3 months now. The little Cado is doing great. Lots of new growth and looks really healthy. The Hass hasn’t done much at all. It has a lot of buds appearing now but once the leaves start coming out they mostly turn brown and look dead. I can’t figure out what is going on. I water both trees every 4 days. I thought maybe I have been watering the hass to much? It has been a week since I last watered it and the moisture meter says it’s still moist. Not sure how realiable they are. When I do water, I water pretty heavy. I live in central California along the coast. Haven’t had a lot of hot days. Mostly high 60’s low 70’s. My soil is sandy so I added mulch and compost in with it. Did this for both trees. I hope you can give me some ideas on what to do. Thank you!

Hi Sandra, just saw this blog while researching for my own tree. I live in Midtown Ventura, with a large 50-year-old Haas in my back yard. The last couple years have not been easy due to the drought, with last year being close to what you are describing. I needed to water above & beyond the 2 times a week at 5 minutes that my sprinklers were doing. This year, I do have lot of avo babies and on the recommendation of my gardener, who does groves in Somis, I’m doing 2 hours once a week with the garden hose, moving it around the drip line as much as I can, along with some avo/citrus food. Fruit and leaves are looking much better.

My first thought is to poke around with your fingers in the soil beneath your Hass to find the roots. Whenever I’ve seen a tree acting like your Hass I’ve discovered a gopher tunnel. I’ve also NOT discovered many white (healthy, new) roots, presumably because of gopher damage.

Let me know what you find (in terms of roots and gopher tunnels) and we’ll take it from there.

Hi,
I have tried growing avocado from seeds after watching tube.
I only managed to plant only one in a small pot. It has been growing quite healthy for a few months but recently the leaves also starts to turn brown n curl before dropping off. I m reading up and it could be my water is the problem . My corridor has no direct sun n I m wondering if it could survive. It is only about 9″ tall. When can I repot it?
I am staying in Singapore, my corridor faces west but shield from direct sun. Hope to get more information to keep my little “princess ” healthy.

Leaves turning brown and curling does sound like it might be related to not enough water or poor quality water. You might try putting it into a bigger pot and watering it a little more. You can repot an avocado anytime, especially in a warm climate like Singapore.

Recently I received an avocado tree there’s about 5 ft tall and the stem of it is at best the size of a nickel in diameter when I got it the soil is completely dry and all of the leaves off of 3 sprigs were dying they were yellow and Browning since all of the leaves have been trimmed back and now the stem is starting to Brown where it was green like I said when I got it it was it was totally dry I’ve been watering it regularly I’m a baby and taking care of an avocado tree what do you suggest I’ve got it in about a gallon size container the root ball that was left was only really one piece about 5in long in a circular motion and there had been an ant nest inside the previous soil which was nothing but dirt I’ve got it in soil with some lite vermiculite.. help save my avocado tree

A tree that’s five feet tall is too big to do well in a container that’s only one gallon. Such a tree should be in a container approximately five gallons in size, or more. That will help with keeping the rootball moist, and thereby keeping the leaves green and growing.

Hi there. I have a few trees I bought a few months ago from Fallbrook. I got a 18 gallon lamb hass which I planted and mulched. The leaves looks healthy on but are mostly curled lengthwise. Is that a trait of that variety or does it have some problem? It is growing taller with more growth. I have it covered in 30 percent shade cloth on a structure I built to get through the extreme heatwaves in the Los Angeles area. I can probably remove it now as it’s much cooler and we actually had a full night of rain. I water it every other day or even more when it is extremely hot.

Taco leaves are a trait of Lamb, yes. I don’t know of any other variety of avocado that looks just like it, but that’s the way Lamb leaves look.

I also had shade cloth over my new trees this summer. I removed it at the end of September because it started cooling down nicely. Looks like we’re going to get warm this week, so maybe you can leave it on for another week or two if you like. In years past, I’ve kept shade cloth over new avocado trees until late October at the latest. It depends on how early the fall cools down.

Well we planted a 15gal Reed Avo yesterday and had no idea about today’s wind! She had fallen over sometime last night or this morning before I checked. I’ve had to put extra reinforcements and hoping it works. Any suggestions? Also her trunk is crooked to begin with so that could be a good thing in this wind or bad. I’m an optimist! Thanks as always.

For a 15-gallon, you’ll likely need a 2×2 wood stake or something metal. I’ve successfully used both on such large trees. Single stakes or double work fine. See the photo of the Nimlioh in the post linked above for an example of double metal stakes.